Positioning: be different but familiar

The textbooks will tell you that the key to succeed in the market place is to differentiate yourself from competition; to carefully choose your positioning. And that means that you need to start by answering this question: What is it that only we can do? However, a recent chat over coffee, made me think of … Continue reading Positioning: be different but familiar

Day in the Life of an academic #2: of meetings and parking tickets

My ‘Day in the Life of an Academic’ post was quite popular, generating interesting discussions on and off line. So, I decided to do another one. For my second instalment, I chose Thursday (May 7th) as this was such a different day from the one I previously wrote about. It was also 43 days after … Continue reading Day in the Life of an academic #2: of meetings and parking tickets

About creativity, coffee and the need to think like a customer

Somebody told me about a very interesting TED talk on creativity. I was very intrigued, and decided to search for it when I got home. The person that mentioned the talk, said that the speaker discussed how starting to drink coffee (instead of beer) had had such a positive impact on creativity: people were lucid … Continue reading About creativity, coffee and the need to think like a customer

April 2015 round-up

April is high up on my list of months that just flew by. Seriously, where did the last 30 days go? April was also a month of contrasts: highs and lows, fast and slow, noise and silence… It was a month that gave me a lot to think about, as I was preparing my monthly … Continue reading April 2015 round-up

An historical example of how (even well intentioned) data collection can lead to negative consequences

I was having a chat with the lovely Monika (aka Mum On The Brink) about the risks of blanket data collection. I said that, in many cases, the purpose of collecting data is harmless or even well intentioned (for instance, save time, show information that is relevant…), but that those same datasets could then be … Continue reading An historical example of how (even well intentioned) data collection can lead to negative consequences

The value of social media data is not in data itself, but the interpreter and the use

Tim Kourdi’s comment about the value of information, in my latest blog post, reminded me of an interview with Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey. Jack challenged criticism that the physical constraints of the platform (specifically, the 140 characters limit for a message) would lead to shallow, value-less content being shared. He did acknowledge that the limit … Continue reading The value of social media data is not in data itself, but the interpreter and the use

Useful illustration of the difference between data and information (and knowledge)

Data and Information. These terms are often used interchangeably, though they actually mean very different things. I recently came across this example*, provided by Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Southampton University. He says: When I give you a number, like 37, you don’t know whether that is somebody’s age or a particular … Continue reading Useful illustration of the difference between data and information (and knowledge)

Customers that suffered to get your product value it more than those that didn’t

I am (finally) reading the book Mistakes were made (but not by me) by Carol Travis and Elliot Aronson (affiliate link), which explores why people find it hard to accept responsibility for mistakes. There is an interesting section in the book, where authors report on findings from psychological experiments that show that: ‘(I)f people go … Continue reading Customers that suffered to get your product value it more than those that didn’t

Ladies and gentlemen: meet the user

Recently, I attended a workshop at the HCCM where Russell Davis, Director of Strategy at Government Digital Service, talked us through the process of transforming the government’s online presence. He said that, very early on in the process, he affixed this picture on the wall, to remind everyone of who the websites’ users were: It … Continue reading Ladies and gentlemen: meet the user